While partnerships including meaningful, two-way, parent-teacher dialogue about young children during early childhood program and school meetings are critical, linguistic differences between bilingual parents who are immigrants and early educators can impede communication and lead to inequitable services. In this article, we focus on one aspect of…

Discussion focuses on American-Western attitudes toward culturally different families and how those attitudes may affect communication between American school personnel and individual families with hearing-impaired children. The need to develop or widen sensitivity to nonverbal and verbal cross-cultural communication is stressed and the problems…

To examine the dynamism and productive qualities of multicultural interaction, a chromosomal bivalency model was borrowed from the biological sciences. Dilemmas inherent in contact between cultures emerge from the sites of multicultural conflict. Understanding these dilemmas allows interactants to have insights into other cultures as well as into…

This paper provides Indian parents of children with disabilities with information from the Education for Parents of Indian Children with Special Needs Project concerning communication between Indian parents and non-Indian service providers. Five basic strategies for effective communication are reviewed: (1) when you do not understand, ask for…

This paper discusses the problems faced by Minnesota's Supporting Diversity in Schools organization in communicating their goal of making schools responsive to students of differing ethnic backgrounds. It was found that using terms such as "multicultural curriculum" and "isolation of schools and communities of color from one…

This 10-lesson curriculum unit provides teachers with some basic tools to help Latino students improve their communication skills. Primary goals are to help students analyze how a person's belief system affects the communication process, and to develop and improve decision-making and communication skills. The following key components are included…

Designed for the large corps of professionals and volunteers who work in the growing number of organizations and programs involved in international educational exchange, this book provides two important resources: (1) a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of the youth exchange experience and the factors that come into play when providing the…

The article presents sociocultural information about Black and Hispanic families and the implications for intervention programs for parents of hearing-impaired minority children. Discussion addresses the importance of the extended family and community in providing care, differing belief systems about handicaps, and anxieties in adjusting to a new…

Covering contemporary Third World as well as Western families, this teaching text addresses topics essential for developing a multicultural perspective on the family. It is an ideal text for comparative family courses and includes exercises (as well as exercise guidelines for instructors) developed to challenge students' existing viewpoints and…

This packet contains six briefs developed specifically for Spanish-speaking parents of Mexican origin, and English translations of the briefs. In plain language, these briefs state what researchers and practitioners have learned about various ways parents can help their children do well in school. Titles of the briefs are (1) "Apoyando el…